Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Frank and Joe looked down at the “meal” Betty had served them. It was some sort of meat cake, but it almost looked as if it were moving; and as the boys looked closer they were able to see that although the meat was not moving, something inside of it was. Joe leaned in for a closer look and jumped away from the table so fast that Frank gasped and yelped, “What’s wrong?”

Seeing Betty looking at him curiously, almost as if she was afraid of him, Joe gave a tentative smile and said loudly, “Nothing at all. Everything’s fine.” When Betty had turned her back, however, he pointed to the food and mouthed, “Roaches.”

Frank hesitantly dipped his head down toward the food and came up looking ill. Sure enough, there had been huge, black bugs crawling and burrowing through the tender, rotting meat. He pushed his plate away, and Joe did the same. Before they could say or do anything, they heard a door swing open and a few heavy sets of footsteps on the molding living room floor.

The brothers froze, expecting the worst. But Betty looked relieved as two men made their way into the kitchen, sniffing the air eagerly. The oldest one of the two, who had gray hair reaching down past his shoulders and beady black eyes, gave a cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “What’re ye cookin’, Bet? Smells great.”

Joe coughed, trying to cover up a snicker, and the younger of the two, a huge, muscular man with short-cropped black hair and sharp, purple eyes, glared at him, anger in his violet depths. Joe guessed he was Betty’s brother.

“Who’re the kids?” he wanted to know, as he sat down next to his sister, piling a huge portion of roach infested meat onto his cracked plate.

“This is Frank and Joe,” Betty said. “Their car broke down. They have nowhere else to stay.”

“Does he know they’re here?” the gray-haired man—Betty’s husband, Frank was sure—questioned, staring at the boys with an air of great dislike.

“Yes. He knocked.”

“Kick them out.”

“What—no, Garret! You know what he said! They have to stay.”

“Kick them out and then tell him they left on their own. You know he won’t ask no questions when he finds them out there, alone in the woods.”

“Garret, there is no way I’m doin’ that! He is a smart person. He’ll know if we make’em leave. You know what he told us…”

Garret’s face paled and he nodded reluctantly. “You boys stay.” He reached down, and with bare hands, he began to shove heaps of the bug-ridden food into his mouth, the other man, Jared, doing the same.

“Eat,” Jared said.

Both boys shook their heads. “We’re…we’re not hungry, thanks,” Joe said quickly. At that moment, his stomach growled loudly.

Garret gave a bitter half-smile. “Looks to me like one of you is hungry. Go on, son, eat. My wife sure makes a good meat pie.”

“No, really, I don’t—” Joe stammered, glancing at Frank for help, who could do nothing but shrug his shoulders and offer a look of sympathy.

“Are you sayin’ you don’ like Bet’s cooking?”

“No, it’s nothing like that, I just saw the…”

“Saw what?”

“Nothing. It looks great, I just—”

Looking angrier than Joe had ever thought possible, even on this cold man, Garret spat, “Then eat!” He reached down on Joe’s plate and grabbed a handful of the disgusting mush. Joe could see the bugs squirming around inside the meat and felt sick. The next thing he knew, the substance was being shoved into his mouth, and strong hands forced his mouth shut.

It was the most horrible thing he had ever tasted. He could taste the stench of rotting meat, the slimy, sickening tingle of something old and decaying. He felt something crunch in between his teeth, and knew without a doubt what he had just bit on. A cockroach.

Panicking, horrified, and revolted, Joe slammed an elbow into Garret’s stomach and the man let go, gasping in pain. Throwing himself forward, the boy fell to the ground and retched all over the decaying floorboards.

After he was finished, he fell to the floor, gasping for breath, and felt a weakening disgust overtake him as he saw a large black bug scurrying across the floor, away from where he had just gotten sick. He was too weak to protest when he felt a large hand—Jared’s, he was sure—lift him up off of the ground and shove him into the table. He heard Frank yelling something, but he was too ill to answer.

Jared drew back a fist, about to punch, when a cold, hard, skeletal voice sounded throughout the house. “This is my house,” it said dangerously. “You play by my rules.” The voice faded away, and Jared dropped his fist.

When Joe sank to the floor, relieved, he snarled, “Don’t count yourself lucky. Wait. He always has plans for his guests.”

As he stalked away, further into the house with his sister and brother-in-law, Frank ran to Joe’s side. “Joe, are you okay? I can’t believe they did that to you; I tried to stop him. We’ll get them back, little brother, I’ll—”

He stopped short as he saw his brother staring into space, a vacant, horrified expression in his eyes. “Joe, don’t be afraid of what that creep said to you. He was just trying to psyche you out.”

But Garret’s oath was not what had caused Joe’s reaction. He was staring into a corner, where he could see the sillouette of someone he once knew and still loved, caught in a circle of flames. She was staring at him, pure hatred in her eyes. “You got what you deserved, Joe Hardy,” she said, in a terrifyingly horrible voice. “You got what you deserved.”

The girl was Iola Morton.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.